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Section III (Peace and Conflict): Conflict in the Gulf 1980-2011
Quick questions on UN sanctions and no-fly zones 1991-2003: HSC Modern History Conflict in the Gulf
15short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is uNSCR 687 and the framework?Show answer
UN Security Council Resolution 687 (3 April 1991), the formal ceasefire resolution, imposed the most intrusive disarmament regime ever applied to a sovereign state. The terms.
What is the No-Fly Zones?Show answer
Operation Provide Comfort (5 April 1991). US, UK, French, Dutch, and Turkish aircraft from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey protected Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq. From 1996 it became Operation Northern Watch. The zone was north of the 36th parallel.
What is uNSCOM and the IAEA?Show answer
UNSCOM under Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekeus (1991-1997) and Australian Richard Butler (1997-1999) ran an unprecedented inspection regime.
What is the Hussein Kamel defection?Show answer
Hussein Kamel al-Majid was Saddam's son-in-law and head of Iraq's WMD program. On 7 August 1995 he, his brother, and their families fled to Jordan.
What is the Oil-for-Food Programme?Show answer
UN Resolution 986 (14 April 1995) created the Oil-for-Food Programme. Iraq could sell up to 2 billion US dollars of oil every six months (raised to 5.26 billion in 1998 and uncapped in 1999); proceeds went into a UN escrow account that paid for food, medicine, infrastructure rehabilitation, reparations, and UN expenses. Iraq accepted on 20 May 1996; first oil exports under the programme began in December 1996.
What is the humanitarian crisis?Show answer
The 1996 UNICEF survey of southern Iraq estimated around 500,000 excess child deaths in the under-five cohort 1991-1996. Subsequent demographic work suggests the true figure was considerably lower (perhaps 100,000 to 200,000 excess deaths in the period) but the humanitarian damage was unambiguously severe.
What is the 1997-98 crisis?Show answer
Iraq expelled American inspectors from UNSCOM in November 1997. The crisis was patched by Secretary-General Kofi Annan's mission to Baghdad in February 1998 (the Annan-Saddam Memorandum of Understanding, 23 February 1998).
What is operation Desert Fox (16-19 December 1998)?Show answer
US and British forces conducted a 70-hour bombing campaign against Iraqi WMD-related sites, command and control, and security infrastructure. Around 415 cruise missiles and 600 bomb sorties were used.
What is uNMOVIC and the breakdown?Show answer
UN Resolution 1284 (17 December 1999) created the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), with Hans Blix as executive chairman. Iraq refused to admit UNMOVIC for nearly three years.
What is historiography?Show answer
Joy Gordon (Invisible War, 2010) is the definitive critique of the sanctions regime.
What is operation Provide Comfort?Show answer
US, UK, French, Dutch, and Turkish aircraft from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey protected Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq. From 1996 it became Operation Northern Watch. The zone was north of the 36th parallel.
What is operation Southern Watch?Show answer
US, UK, French (until 1996), and Saudi aircraft from Saudi and Kuwaiti bases enforced a no-fly zone south of the 32nd parallel, extended to the 33rd parallel on 3 September 1996.
What is paul Volcker et al?Show answer
(the Independent Inquiry Committee report, 2005) is the definitive Oil-for-Food investigation.
What is treating sanctions as a failure?Show answer
They prevented WMD reconstitution and constrained the regime. They failed politically and humanitarianly.
What is misreading the Kamel defection?Show answer
It exposed hidden programs; it did NOT show ongoing post-1995 WMD activity.